In their latest sweep of “illegal” gambling in Westmoreland and Fayette counties, state gendarmes last week confiscated 178 gaming machines, mostly video poker. They came from 39 clubs and other establishments. Nearly $390,000 in supposedly ill-gotten proceeds were seized. And it all was done in the name of “protecting the public.” No arrests have been made.
But who's really being “protected” here — besides, that is, the state's sanctioned gambling racket?
As officials explain, it's a matter of percentages — or, more accurately, the percentage that isn't going into the state's take of gambling revenue.
Pennsylvania's Gaming Control Board dictates that the mandated percentage payout for casino slot machines is, at the minimum, 85 percent. Police believe the suspect machines were rigged to pay out 65 percent.
But are the same machines not licensed by local jurisdictions “for amusement purposes only” and for a fee? Patrons choose to play them, whether or not they know what the payout will be.
Yet each week “at least a dozen” so-called illegal gambling devices are confiscated by the Pittsburgh District Enforcement office. Last year, state police in six Western Pennsylvania counties seized nearly three times as many video poker machines as they did in 2013.
Protecting state-sanctioned gambling while raiding watering holes for video gaming machines is a farce and a fraud. It's long past time to end the hypocrisy.
